The State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan disclosed plans on Tuesday to simplify the visa process for visitors from the European Union member states, according to the Baku office of Russia’s Interfax News Agency.
“In order to increase tourist flow from the EU countries, we are now engaged in talks to facilitate the visa regime and introduce visa-on-arrival procedure at the Azerbaijani airports,” Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Tourism Agency Fuad Naghiyev was quoted as saying.
He explained that Azerbaijan hopes for a rise in the tourist numbers by the end of the year.
“We forecast a growth of between 8 percent and 12 percent in the number of tourists. In particular, this summer season we anticipate large tourist flows from the EU, China and India,” he said.
Previous to this year, Azerbaijan State Tourism Agency and China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), targeting to grow Chinese group tourist numbers visiting Azerbaijan to 200,000 in the next few years.
In 2016, Azerbaijan eased the visa process for Chinese visitors in a bid to boost tourism flows from China.
Tags: Azerbaijan, EU tourists, visa process
